- I believe the experience for really small business owners and non profit directors to get going online is and has been broken.
- I believe there is a lack of personal and ongoing attention available to really small business owners that need it most.
- I believe the current DIY website options are built by developers and designers for other web-savvy designers and developers to do websites themselves. Leaving really small business owners required to do it themselves for whom the web is perplexing, offline.
- I believe marketing today boils down to cogent campaigns getting attention. And an ever-improving system in place and keeping attention. Through an education two-way conversation between your brand and your audience.
- And attention requires content. Ads are part of a smart strategy but they should point to the content, not the checkout form.
- I believe there’s a huge opportunity helping Rainmakers leverage attention of their desired audience.
- I believe the term turn-key has been used in so many empty marketing promises over the years that it’s lost meaning to the consumers who need it most.
Blog
WebChurch Experience, Get Going Online Even Though It's All New To You
Webchurch experience, using Rainmaker Platform (Retail Version is $165/mo).
Your first question is likely, “What’s a webchurch?”
To answer that question, let’s begin with how you define a church.
Is a church the physical structure the congregation meets in?
Or are the people that associate themselves with the church, the actual church?
I see a church as the people.
As the sum of the connections between those people, aka congregants, both visitors and members alike.
A webchurch is the digital representation of your church.
Combine a website property specific to the church along with helpful emails to spur increased communication between everyone.
The webchurch experience documented in this post was more than six years in the making.
One thing to understand early and often?
Never let ’em make you speak tech.
No matter how many tech buzzwords they throw at you, always know it’s your message that matters.
Your ministry.
The pieces forming the experience (and their technical terms such as autoresponder sequence, free digital products, membergroups, landing pages, email lists, et al) are trees.
The WebChurch, which empowers you AND your ministry leaders, is your forest
Who did I specifically craft this webchurch experience for?
- You lead a local church
- You’re NOT a digital native
- Modest budget
- Passion for your mission
- Vision for your congregation
The WebChurch merely serves as an amplifier for the actions of your church team.
This is accomplished by organizing and focusing communication with the complete congregation on as close to a personal level as possible.
The Webchurch experience focuses on delivering a personalized message for each ministry member over the life of their relationship with your church.
This goal of the experience is to move people from the stranger view to the visitor view and on to the member view.
Let’s Walk Through Views 1 thru 6 That Strangers See
View 1 – Stranger view on the home page
This is your view when you land on the home page but are NOT logged int. Call-to-action is for the site visitor to introduce themselves by joining the virtual congregation as a visitor.
Clicking the CTA button leads the stranger to the next view.
View 2 – The Visitor Sign up Page
Simple landing page for creating an account with your webchurch. Think of this as the digital equivalent to a first time visitor with your church filling out and returning a visitor card.
View 3 – Almost There Page
Email communication is important, so the first time they sign up with your Rainmaker powered website, everyone must confirm their email address by clicking a confirmation link emailed to the email address they provided.
View 4 – Email confirmation link
This email is sent automatically by your Rainmaker Platform powered website once a new email address is submitted for inclusion on your email list.
View 5 – Success Page
The visitor has successfully introduced themselves to your webchurch, removing the stranger view and putting the visitor view in their sights..
View 6 – Home Page – Visitor View
The home page is the primary page for your congregation. Now that they’re logged in, they see either the visitor or member view, depending on where they are in their relationship with your WebChurch.
To Recap
The WebChurch is a first step in dividing your website visitors into groups to speak to them more directly on each page of your site.
Not to mention each email you send them.
If you’re wondering what happened to the fifth video, you can watch it here (It’s about working with me).
Here’s how the lifecycle of a webchurch member is laid out in order.
- Phase 1 | Stranger View
- Introduce self and confirm email address
- Phase 2 | Visitor View
- Join community group
- Phase 3 | Member View
- Join Additional Applicable Ministries
- Kids Ministry
- Youth Ministry
- Womens Ministry
- Mens Ministry
- Join Additional Applicable Ministries
- Phase 4 | Volunteer View
Adding additional ministries is simply a matter of replicating the components from one of the five included ministries.
Take the demo for a spin webchurch demo here. Check into availability of my personal attention here.
P.S. There’s almost nothing I love more than answering questions, so please comment here or email me directly with your questions, comments, or concerns about my WebChurch strategy.
Rainmaker Platform Upgrade to Current Genesis Child Themes
More than thirty-six months ago, the beta version, aka first customers, of Rainmaker Platform arrived.
From day one, the design component of Rainmaker Platform has consisted of Genesis Child Themes.
The current version of Pro Genesis Child Themes use HTML5, are mobile responsive, often include WooCommerce integration, but don’t style any of the elements specific to Rainmaker Platform.
This is an opportunity.
So what could the Rainmaker Version offer in exchange for this additional $40 to $50?*
- Style the components of RM’s native landing page builder
- Pricing Columns
- Features
- Testimonials
- CTA Areas
- Signup/Checkout/Contact Forms
- Section Headings
- Section Descriptions
- LMS Items
- Portfolio Items
- Books
- Podcast Episodes using Simple Podcasting Player
And that doesn’t even introduce the number one provider of value in a Rainmaker Upgrade to Genesis Child Themes.
The custom email template.
I believe it’s crazy smart from the theme provider perspective to translate the theme design to the emails too.
Why would Genesis theme developers want to do this?
To help spread the word about Rainmaker Platform beyond merely being an active member of the Rainmaker Platform affiliate program.
To sell your current child themes plus added styling for Rainmaker Platform components at twice your current price for a Genesis Child Theme.
For those of you selling access to all your designs, ala the all themes package long offered by StudioPress. this offers an opportunity for access to all Rainmaker Platform themes at a premium rate to reflect the single theme price being doubled.
Questions, comments, concerns welcome in the comments area below. I love learning.
*To be clear, I believe this is a premium version, over and above, the Pro version Genesis Child Theme. For example: Aspire Pro = $50 then Aspire RM = $100
My further feedback for Rainmaker Digital's Rainmaker Platform 4-29-17
@jasonhobbsllc We really appreciate your continued support of our products and we are grateful for your feedback. (1/2) -M
— Rainmaker Digital (@RainmakerHQ) April 28, 2017
@jasonhobbsllc We’re happy to hear from you further if you’d like to send us an email at [email protected]. (2/2) -M
— Rainmaker Digital (@RainmakerHQ) April 28, 2017
My Further Feedback Follows
Open communication.
This is my core concern with Rainmaker Digital’s strategy for Rainmaker Platform.
The turn to secretive started shortly following the launch of the first publicly accessible version of Rainmaker Platform.
I know.
Because I was there and paying attention as an outsider (of the company as I was a customer/affiliate/value-added reseller) of Rainmaker Digital, aka the team behind Rainmaker Platform.
There is a palpable lack of inclusion within the Rainmaker Platform strategy.
Feedback is “appreciated” but seems to be rarely used for anything more than proving or disproving already completed strategic planning.
I say this because I have seen repeated requests for Zapier integration.
For simplified tagging.
For an update to the landing page builder.
For more designs other than the six designs included when the landing page builder was initially added to the platform.
For an update to the LMS system.
For an update to the Marketing Automation triggers and actions.
For an eCommerce solution.
For a customer relationship management component.
The company focus seems, in hindsight, to have shifted to StudioPress Sites sometime last year.
With nothing mentioned about the strategic shift until after StudioPress Sites had launched and subsequently been followed by multiple monthly release dates producing internal system improvements, boisterously promoted “moral victories,” and little else.
There has been no public conversation concerning the road map for Rainmaker Platform.
I understand the proven genius in not following “conventional wisdom” but this is another matter entirely.
What we have here is a failure to communicate.
With an invested part of the team. The users of Rainmaker Platform.
This failure to communicate is especially hurtful to users because it’s coming from a company long KNOWN for superior communication.
And the failure to communicate flows from a team littered with amazing communicators.
Disconcerting.
And this comes from one of your biggest fans.
My suggestion/request?
Open communication.
Wide TF open lines of communication between Rainmaker Platform and all it’s stakeholders.
When you launched Rainmaker Platform you spoke in soaring terms of changing the world, one person at a time.
Now you seem to be most concerned with the platform not sucking too terribly.
I believe that to be a fair assertion based not upon your marketing materials but your observed actions over the life of Rainmaker Platform.
I really hope you decide to commit to open communication between Rainmaker Platform and it’s stakeholders but I’m not comfortable holding my breath while waiting.
To be clear
My reservations are NOT with the people behind the product personally.
They are with the decision to not communicate regularly and, most importantly, openly with the Rainmaker Platform stakeholders.
This is easily remedied however.
And, I believe, offers a strategic advantage for Rainmaker Platform going forward.